The progressive development of paperless office systems is the main reason why many important documents are nowadays available in electronic form only. This approach is usually very secure because one of the essential advantages of digital text documents is that, unlike paper documents, they can be easily modified or shared at any time.
However, a computer crash or power failure can lead to a program error resulting in the corruption of an important document. Alternatively, you may accidentally delete some crucial files. To avoid such unpleasant situations, it might be a good idea to create multiple copies of electronic documents. In this guide, you will learn how to copy Word files on your Mac device without having to install Microsoft Office.
Why make a copy of a Word document
The safety of documents that exclusively exist in electronic format really matters. If they are deleted by mistake or due to a system crash, their restoration may take a lot of time and effort. That’s why there are several reasons why making copies of Word documents is not a choice but a vital necessity:
- Creating a backup copy of a document to restore its contents in case of file corruption or deletion;
- Sharing a copy of a document with other users for collaborative work in real time without making changes to the original file;
- Making a copy of a document that can be modified without limitations while the contents of the original file remains unchanged;
- Saving a document as a template that can be used to create similar files.
No matter which of the reasons above is your case, you can easily create copies of text documents using ONLYOFFICE Personal or ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors for macOS.
How to create a copy of a Word document online in your browser
If you don’t want to install anything on your Mac, the easiest way of creating document copies is ONLYOFFICE Personal. It’s a free online office suite with cloud storage that is designed for personal use. The suite is completely compatible with Microsoft Office formats and allows you to create, edit and collaborate on Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations in your browser.
All you need to do to get started is to register a free account using your email. After completing the registration process, you will have access to your personal cloud office.
To make a copy of a document, you need to open it using the ONLYOFFICE text editor. Then go to the File tab and click the Save Copy as… option.
Choose the required format (DOCX) from the available options, and a new copy of the file will appear in your storage. You can modify the copy as you wish without worrying about the contents of the original document.
How to save a copy of a Word document to your Mac
If you created a document online and want to save its copy to edit it locally on your Mac, here is what you need to do. Open the required file in ONLYOFFICE Personal, go to the File tab, and you will see the Download As… option. Just click DOCX and choose a folder to save the document copy on the hard drive of your Mac. The duplicate file will appear in the specified destination folder.
Alternatively, you can install ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors, a free office suite that is compatible with macOS v10.12 or higher. Like the ONLYOFFICE online editors, the desktop app is based on the same engine, so it offers the same user interfaces and editing features.
After installation, open the app, choose an existing document or create a new one. When you finish the editing process, click the File tab and choose Save as. Select the required format (DOCX) and the destination folder. Don’t forget to save the copy under a new name. Otherwise, you will overwrite the contents of the original document.
How to copy a Word document on macOS
If you have an already existing text document on your hard drive, you can copy it without using any apps. Find the document in the Finder. Press and hold the Command key if you want to copy several files.
Right-click the required document and click Copy. Then put the cursor where you want to create a file copy, right-click and select Paste. A copy of the original file will appear in the destination folder.
We hope you find this guide useful. Now you know how to make copies of Word documents on your macOS-based device, both online and offline. Is there another easy way of copying important docs? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
